Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Gondar, Ethiopia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (GDQ), Gondar, Ethiopia would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,474 miles (or 5,591 kilometers).

A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between RAF Fairford and Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.

Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between RAF Fairford and Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• RAF Lyneham's position as the primary tactical transport base for the RAF was emphasised in February 1971 when Nos.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• On 12 May 2005, USAFE activated the 501st Combat Support Wing, with headquarters at RAF Alconbury, to provide support to its GSUs in the United Kingdom.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.

Facts about Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (GDQ):

• Because of Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport's high elevation of 6,542 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GDQ. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GDQ a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• Gondar Airport, also known as Atse Tewodros Airport, is an airport serving Gondar, a city in the northern Amhara Region of Ethiopia.
• The furthest airport from Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (GDQ) is Raroia Airport (RRR), which is nearly antipodal to Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (meaning Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Raroia Airport), and is located 12,193 miles (19,623 kilometers) away in Raroia, French Polynesia.
• In addition to being known as "Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport", another name for GDQ is "የጎንደር ዓፄ ቴዎድሮስ የአየር ማረፊያ".
• The closest airport to Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (GDQ) is Debre Tabor Airport (DBT), which is located 59 miles (94 kilometers) SE of GDQ.
• Gondar Atse Tewodros Airport (GDQ) currently has only 1 runway.